The Long Island Sound Partnership (LISP) — a cooperative organization of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the New York and Connecticut Sea Grant (NYSG, CTSG, respectively) programs, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and other state agencies and nonprofits focused on restoring and caring for the estuary — recently hosted three free community events along Long Island Sound (LIS) to celebrate 40 years of LIS conservation. These events were held in Oyster Bay, The Bronx, and Groton, CT.
“These celebrations are really special because they’re opportunities for people to explore Long Island Sound in a fun way and really experience it firsthand with their families,” said Jimena Perez-Viscasillas, a Stony Brook-based NYSG outreach specialist with LISP. “When people feel a connection to the Sound, they’re more likely to care about what happens to it. That’s why events like these matter. They’re part of how we grow a community of stewards who will help carry this conservation work forward.”
The Long Island Sound Celebration in Oyster Bay took place at the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park and at Beekman Beach. It was led by NYSG, NYSDEC, and LISP in collaboration with the Town of Oyster Bay, The Waterfront Center, and several environmental nonprofits who joined in to host educational booths and interactive activities for attendees to learn more about the Sound.
The events were designed to help people connect with Long Island Sound, its beauty, its wildlife and the many ways we can all help protect it. They featured various family-friendly activities highlighting things to do in and around Long Island Sound, including free boat rides, fishing, seining, a beach clean-up and a birdwatching walk.
During the celebrations, LISP unveiled its latest educational sticker, which features bottlenose dolphins in a shiny holographic finish to celebrate the 40th anniversary milestone. The stickers will be available at some beach cleanup events, hosted by LISP partners in New York and Connecticut from Sept. 20 (International Coastal Cleanup Day) through the end of the year — including the popular Halloween Coastal Clean, which will take place at West Meadow Beach in Stony Brook on Nov. 1. The clean-ups are in line with LISP’s ongoing #DontTrashLISound campaign, the goal of which is to inspire people to clean up trash on the beaches, avoid single-use plastics and reduce the amount of plastic pollution in the Sound. Find out more by visiting LISP’s “What You Can Do”.
The good news is most residents of the region seem to view Long Island Sound positively. In a 2024 public perception survey funded through LISP, a majority of the over 3,700 survey participants indicated they saw the Sound as a major asset to the quality of life and economy of the region. When asked for three adjectives to describe the Sound, survey respondents offered words like “beautiful,” “fun, “peaceful,” and “relaxing,” along with activity words like “fishing” and “swimming.”
The survey respondents were residents of the LIS watershed — the land area that drains into the estuary — who are a representative sample of the regional population. Nearly 9 million people live in the LIS watershed.
“General impressions of Long Island Sound are overwhelmingly positive,” said project manager Nancy Balcom, CTSG’s associate director. “Sixty percent of respondents agreed that ‘being near Long Island Sound makes [them] feel peaceful and happier.’ Sixty-one percent said the Sound provides recreational opportunities, 58% said it has a positive economic impact on the region, and 60% would call Long Island Sound ‘a national treasure.’”
On the other hand, however, the survey found that only one-third of the survey respondents were even aware that they live in the LIS watershed. “There’s still work to be done here to build awareness of location and connection,” said Balcom. For more on the Sound survey, read the complete NYSG press release.
New York Sea Grant
New York Sea Grant, with offices at Stony Brook University, is a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York, and is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.
— Compiled by Sumayyah Uddin, NYSG
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